The present invention relates to methods of and apparatus for treating waste products. It is more particularly applicable to the heat treatments imposed on industrial waste products for the purpose of energy recovery and includes causing the combustion and/or pyrolysis of the waste products within an incinerator furnace and recovering the heat generated within the furnace whilst establishing a heat exchange between the smokes emerging from the furnace and a fluid for the utilisation or exploitation of the heat thus recovered.
The specification of U.S. Pat. No. 4,279,208 discloses a method of and apparatus for processing waste products which essentially comprises an incinerator furnace and a recuperator or sensible heat receiver, situated along the path of the exhaust fumes issuing from the furnace. In apparatus of this kind, and as described in aforementioned patent specification, the furnace and the recuperator are set up in direct proximity to each other along the path of the fumes, the recuperator may in particular comprise a steam boiler, and the incinerator furnace is most frequently of the rotary kind, meaning that it comprises at least one rotary section in which the substantial proportion of the combustion (with pyrolysis if appropriate) takes place, and a stationary section which guides the fumes from the rotary section to their inflow into the recuperator. It is advantageously at the level of this stationary section that provision is made for elimination of the ashes, as well as for a post-combustion of the fumes in case of need or if for any reason found to be desirable.
In contradistinction to this known state of the art, it is essentially an object of the invention to increase the overall efficiency of energy conversion by improving the recovery of energy between the furnace and the recuperator, and also to improve the conditions of the combustion of the waste products carried out in the furnace and to reduce the cost of the apparatus for carrying out the method, all these advantages playing a part in the optimum salvaging of industrial waste products in the generation of power.